Oehms

Gustav Mahler - Symphonie Nr. 4 „Das himmlische Leben“
Gürzenich-Orchester Köln / Markus Stenz / Christiane Oelze, Soprano
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 225 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Oehms Classics # OC 649 | Country/Year: Germany 2010
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic / Modern

…In sum, this is simply a wonderful performance, excellently played, recorded, and sung, and it’s different enough from all of the competition to justify purchase even if you already think you own enough versions of this symphony.

Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, his achingly lovely swan song, was most likely written with two male singers in mind. Yet it's not often recorded that way, and the present release, with a genuine male soprano and alto, represents something rarer still, perhaps because not a lot of male singers can pull off the higher ranges convincingly without belting. Both the singers are billed as countertenors on the album, but Romanian-born Valer Barna-Sabadus, who looks like he just stepped out of a rock & roll dive, is a true soprano. Check out his soaring lines in the "Cujus animan," track 2, for the real news on this album. It's not that he delivers operatic power; plenty of countertenors can do that. It's the lightness and balance – even a certain soberness – that fit the work to its intended church ambiance.

John Cage - Indeterminacy & Solo For Piano [Fontana Mix] (Deutsche Übersetzung)
Joachim Król, Rezitation / Susanne Kessel, Klavier / Martin Erdmann, Übersetzung
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 169 MB | Full Artwork: 82 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Oehms # OC 855 | Country/Year: Germany 2012
Genre: Classical | Style: Contemporary, Recital

"…Joachim Król’s reading is suitably undemonstrative, but the novel aspect of his role is that the text has been translated into German. As one might expect, this alters the experience in a fundamental—but not necessarily frustrating—way. Yes, listeners who don’t speak German will lose the sense of the stories, but, in an ironic Cagean twist, this in turn may allow them to focus greater attention upon the music, and perhaps notice the musicality, rather than just the meaning, of the language…" ~Fanfare

For this 2015 release on Oehms Classics, Dmitri Kitayenko and the Gürzenich-Orchestra of Cologne present two of Sergey Rachmaninov's most popular works: the Symphony No. 2 in E minor and the Vocalise in C sharp minor. If this album seems like any number of CDs with this pairing, be prepared for a surprise, because the Vocalise is performed by Valer Sabadus, a German countertenor whose florid voice may be more familiar from performances of Baroque opera. This rendition of the Vocalise hearkens back to Rachmaninov's original version for soprano voice, as the last of the 14 Lieder, Op. 34, which was subsequently arranged for various solo instruments and orchestra.